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The US president and the German chancellor have locked horns. Spain has shunned Washington. The Nato alliance is more fragile than it has ever been.
Western powers are determined to see off Russian military “hard” power; they are familiar with “soft power” operations to undermine democracies. But how to deal with the Kremlin’s relationship with Donald Trump is now an emergency.
Working out a response to internal frictions within Nato has become a conundrum, not only for leaders in the alliance but for the military officials who have to figure out how to keep the military machine operational.
A weakened Nato serves only the interests of the enemies and rivals of the West.
Top of the list of beneficiaries is Vladimir Putin, but China will enjoy the latest spats between Trump and Germany’s Friedrich Merz almost as much.
open image in galleryPresident Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz meet in the Oval Office in March (Reuters)Merz, opting for a “truth to power” approach, ..

The wreckage of the biggest U.S. Naval loss of World War I has been discovered by a team of British divers after 107 years.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tampa was discovered around 50 miles off the coast of Newquay, a seaside town in south west England, after being lost in 1918. ​
All 131 people aboard the vessel were killed as it sank, with the tragedy representing the largest single American naval combat loss of life in WW1.
​“When the Tampa was lost with all hands in 1918, it left an enduring grief in our service,” Admiral Kevin Lunday, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, said in a press release. “Locating the wreck connects us to their sacrifice and reminds us that devotion to duty endures.”​
open image in galleryA team of British divers have located the wreckage of the biggest US naval loss from World War One (US Coast Guard/Gasperados)The discovery of the Tampa is the culmination of three years of collaboration between the Coast Guard Historian’s Office and a group of British di..

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces a second day of grilling from Democrats on Capitol Hill, with senators getting their first opportunity Thursday to confront or praise the Pentagon chief over his handling of the Iran war.
Hegseth battled with Democrats — and some Republicans — a day earlier during a nearly six-hour House Armed Services Committee hearing, where he faced sharp questioning over the war’s costs in dollars, lives and the diminishing stockpiles of critical weapons.
The Senate Armed Services Committee will hear a similar presentation on the Trump administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion. Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, will again stress the need for more drones, missile defense systems and warships.
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Defense secretary claims that 60-day legal limit for war is on pause during ceasefire
The Trump administration is running up against a 60-day l..

Luigi Mangione’s attorney says her client, who stands accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, “does not support violent actions.”
Karen Friedman Agnifilo also argued that any attempts to connect the 27-year-old to other incidents, just as the U.S. sees a rise in political violence, are “dangerous and prejudicial.”
“As we have stated before in multiple public court filings, Mr Mangione does not support violent actions and does not condone past or future political violence,” Friedman Agnifilo said in a statement.
“These repeated attempts to connect him to unrelated acts or to insinuate that he condones or supports these acts are irresponsible, dangerous and prejudicial.”
open image in galleryLuigi Mangione's attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said that her client ‘does not support violent actions' (AFP/Getty)The statement was issued in response to a request for comment by Fox News Digital in the wake of the recent, unrelated shooting at the White House Correspondents’..

Hegseth explodes after Democrat accuses him of misleading country into 'disaster' Iran warEmbattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth erupted at a California Democrat who dubbed the war in Iran a “quagmire” during a congressional hearing into the conflict, which has so far cost an estimated $25 billion.
Hegseth is being questioned under oath by the House Armed Services Committee alongside Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, as negotiations to end President Donald Trump’s war remain at an impasse.
California Democrat John Garamendi said Trump has got himself “stuck in the quagmire of another war in the Middle East” and accused Hegseth of “misleading” the American people.
“Shame on you for that statement,” Hegseth said. “Don't say, I support the troops on one hand, and then a two month mission is a quagmire…Who you cheering for here? Who you pulling for?”
The war, which Hegseth pledged in early March would likely last between “four to five weeks,” has now entered its eig..

Days after calling for comedian Jimmy Kimmel to lose his job after mocking the near quarter-century age gap between President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, the president used the same subject matter as fodder for a joke in his speech welcoming King Charles III to the White House on Tuesday.
Trump was working his way through meandering remarks at the end of a formal arrival ceremony on the South Lawn when he segued from meditating on the deep friendship that has developed between the U.S. and U.K. over the 250 years since American independence to his Scottish-born mother, Mary McLeod Trump’s admiration for the late Queen Elizabeth II.
As Trump noted how his mother had emigrated from Scotland to the U.S. at age 19 and entered into what would be a 63-year marriage with his father, he turned back to the first lady, who was seated with Queen Camilla behind him.
“That's a record we won't be able to match, darling,” he said wistfully.
“I'm sorry, it’s just not goi..

An 89-year-old man suspected of rampaging through Athens with a shotgun has been arrested, more than 200km away from the mass shooting, and following a major manhunt.
The pensioner, identified locally as a garbage collector from the Athens area, was picked up by police in Patra around 4.30pm local time, some six hours after the first reports of an attack on a social security office in the city.
He was arrested carrying a loaded .38 revolver at a hotel this afternoon, after fleeing the capital, local media reported. Police are yet to confirm a motive, but local reports say the suspect had lost a court case regarding the awarding of his pension, citing unnamed sources.
The gunman initially opened fire at a branch of the National Social Security Fund (EFKA) in Kato Petralona on Tuesday morning, wounding an employee in the leg, police said.
Alexandros Varveris, head of EFKA, later said the gunman had gone to the fourth floor of the social security fund’s offices in the Kerameikos area of c..

The Trump administration’s proposed new rules on gun ownership are intended to scare transgender people out of buying weapons, leading pro-Second Amendment activists say.
A new rule enacted by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would mean all new gun owners must list their birth sex on mandatory purchase paperwork, even if they have legally or medically changed genders.
Such a rule would make it easier for ATF to gather lists of trans gun owners, simply by identifying where names appear to conflict with the listed sex,according to firearms policy experts.
It could also deter trans people from buying guns legally, since complying with paperwork would create a “Catch 22” situation — and a false statement comes with the threat of federal charges and prison time, the experts said.
“Just the announcement is going to have a chilling effect,” Patrick G. Eddington, a senior fellow in homeland security and civil liberties at the Cato Institute, told The Independent.
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The quick actions of five middle school students may have prevented a disaster.
On Wednesday, a group of students from Hancock Middle School in Mississippi worked together after their school bus driver experienced a medical emergency and passed out.
Leah Taylor, the driver, told WLOX that the “students stepped up when I passed out driving the bus.”
“She kind of fell over, like flopped over, and everyone started standing up,” McKenzy Finch, a sixth-grade, told the station.
Despite most of their driving experience likely being reserved to video games or four-wheelers, the students sprung into action and devised a genius way to stop the bus by working together.
open image in galleryFive middle school students, who helped stop a bus after their driver passed out during a medical emergency, stand outside a bus in Hancock County, Miss., on Thursday, April 23, 2026 (AP)With the vehicle still in motion, Jackson Casnave, who is also in sixth-grader, rushed to grab the bus's steering whe..

President Donald Trump has called for unity after a suspect was arrested for attempting to storm a White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, armed with multiple knives and a gun.
“I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts in resolving our difference [sic] peacefully,” he said at a press conference in the aftermath of the incident, still dressed in his tuxedo from the meal.
The incident took place at the Washington Hilton on Saturday evening, where the annual event was being held. Journalists and press who cover the White House and the president are invited to attend the fundraiser and awards ceremony every year.
Mr Trump has previously not attended the dinner, which usually involves poking fun at the US administration in power, and the US leader and businessman was famously the butt of a joke at the event in 2011 made by then-president Barack Obama.
President Trump thanked the Secret Service and law enforcement for their swift action to detain the gunman, 31-year-old..